Motorola Solutions to buy Airwave

Motorola Solutions has reached an agreement to buy Airwave as part of a plan to expand its managed and support services business with Airwave.

The acquisition will cost £817.5m (around $1.2bn) and will complete in the first quarter of next year.

In the meantime, Airwave’s legal action against the Home Office over the Emergency Services Network (ESN) procurement willcontinue.

A further hearing is due to take place next week which will discuss the issues around the suspension of the procurement. However, the hearing will not discuss Airwave’s legal complaint over the way the procurement has been conducted.

Ironically, Airwave’s legal action is preventing its future parent being able to seal and announce its contract with Lot 2 of ESN, for which Motorola is preferred bidder.

Motorola described Airwave as "the largest private operator of a public safety network in the world", delivering mission-critical voice and data communications to more than 300 emergency and public service agencies in the UK, allowing more than 300,000 police, fire, ambulance and other emergency personnel to easily and securely communicate with each other.

Airwave and Motorola are long-term business partners and Motorola has operated as a communications supplier and partner for the emergency services community for 45 years.

"The Airwave acquisition demonstrates our commitment to public safety in Great Britain and to growing our Managed & Support Services business," said Greg Brown, chairman and chief executive of Motorola Solutions. "The combination of our years of experience as a trusted global leader in mission-critical communications and Airwave’s proven service delivery platform will provide Great Britain with innovative emergency services technology that enhances public safety today and into the future."

"Airwave has proven expertise in delivering mission-critical voice and data communications services, and over the past 15 years we’ve invested significantly in the development of a secure, resilient and interoperable network," said Richard Bobbett, chief executive officer of Airwave. "We are delighted that through this new relationship with global leader Motorola Solutions, we are able to enhance our offering and ensure our customers continue to benefit from the high-quality service they have come to expect."

In an interview, Bobbett said discussions with Motorola Solutions had accelerated over the last few weeks, but he stressed that Airwave had also had discussions with other potential partners.

Motorola Solutions currently operates more than 20 large-scale and complex public safety networks systems around the world, including in Norway, Denmark, Austria, Australia and the US.